This was sent to Vera and at her request I am posting to this list in case there are any family members on the list. I have found Manifests, Census records, Birth, Death records, War records for her so no need to duplicate these efforts. I am currently awaiting obituaries for her family from GV in Fresno that might lead to living family members and will provide her information to them should they wish to correspond with her. If you have any knowledge of her family, please post to list or send to my email and I will pass it along. Her Dreit(h) family originally went from Saratov (1911, 1913) to New York, Michigan, and then settled in Fresno CA area in 1930. The brothers went by the names of Alexander Dreith and Henry Dreith. Alexander and family died in Fresno. I believe Henry died in NJ and I am awaiting his obituary. Let me know if you are related to this family. See her letter below. Elaine "Dear Vera, Thank you very much for your article about Schmidt's. It was a surprise for me to discover it on http://www.volgagermans.net because my father Vladimir Koshelev (Dreit) often told me that his grandfather Johann Dreit worked as a manager at a mill of Schmidt's in Saratov. Johann Dreit had a big family - 5 sons and 2 girls . One of his girls was my grandmother - Amalia Dreit married to Mr. Koshelev so my father's family name is Vladimir Koshelev. We live in Moscow, my father is now 87 years old. Unfortunately we are lacking a lot of information about our German family roots and until now we fail to find traces of my fathers two uncles - Alexander and Andrew Dreits who moved to the states from Saratov at about 1905. If by chance you have any information about Dreits from Saratov or maybe you could help in tracing Dreits in California (Alex Dreit settled with his family in CA being a successful farmer) please kindly contact me. Tatiana"